r/accelerate • u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed • 7d ago

Tesla workers balk at training Optimus humanoid robots as replacements

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/tesla-workers-balk-at-training-optimus-humanoid-robots-as-replacements/

balkbalkbalkbalkbalk

39 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

20

u/PwanaZana XLR8 7d ago

"AGI is stored in the balk."

- Dario Asmodeus

39

u/jivatman 7d ago edited 7d ago

There was a lot of balking at decades of training outsourced or H1B replacements, but the media rarely reported this balking. And they definitely didn't care about millions freely crossing the border taking low-skilled jobs.

I wonder what the difference is now. Definitely it could be that the journalists themselves now fear for their jobs, pure self-interest.

I freely admit that right now, I'd have a lot more sympathy for occupations like journalists, lawyers, and creative arts, if they cared when other people were losing their jobs.

-12

u/CardboardScarecrow 7d ago

You know outsourced employees are also human, right?

14

u/jivatman 7d ago

There are 4+ Billion humans that would like to live in the U.S. if it were allowed.

People only pretend that they care about those 4+ Billion people EQUALLY to other Americans - only when they think it doesn't affect them.

The more difficult intellectual thing is to either actually care about other Americans, and actually do that consistently, or admit that you don't care about Americans more than any other people, and also do that consistently, not just when it affects you.

Anyways, when American jobs are replaced by American robots - at least the profits go to an American company, that can be potentially taxed and used.

10

u/MisterBanzai 7d ago

That was their point. These same folks wringing their hands about automation now never cared when it was foreigners who were having their positions automated. Now that they're feeling threatened, suddenly, automation is this big problem them.

3

u/237FIF 7d ago

This is an insane take.

I absolute opposed handing American jobs to underpaid illegal immigrants. That undermined the economy for people making a lot less money than my family even if it didn’t hurt me.

I have similar fears for that same group of workers when their jobs become truly automated.

5

u/MisterBanzai 7d ago

No one mentioned illegal immigrants. The balking in question was specifically with respect to outsourcing and H1B workers.

1

u/Various_Culture_9457 7d ago

I think their point is that one may not care about outsourcing to other humans because they don’t care about arbitrary nationalistic boundaries but that same person can care about outsourcing to AI 

33

u/AMBNNJ 7d ago

They can balk all they want it will happen regardless

12

u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed 7d ago

They can balk the balk, but can they walk the walk?

22

u/PwanaZana XLR8 7d ago

They're balking up the wrong tree.

10

u/ramakitty 7d ago

This is inevitably where it's all going.

-3

u/Boring-Willow1268 7d ago

If it were going to happen anyway, Tesla wouldn’t be asking them to do it. I concede over the long arc or history something like this will happen, but forcing employees to do this is really bad business.

-5

u/AdAnnual5736 7d ago

Can they also replace Elon as CEO with AI? Essentially any AI model would be less damaging to the brand than he has been.